Kurt Zube

Kurt Helmut Zube (born July 14, 1905 in Danzig , German Empire , † May 7, 1991 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German author , publisher and mail order book dealer. He often wrote under the pseudonym KHZ Solneman (initials and ananym of "nameless"). As an individual anarchist , Zube was also the founder of the Mackay Society and one of the first participants in the WIR (business ring) cooperative (today's name WIR-Bank ).

Life

Childhood and youth

Kurt Zube was the only child of Nathanael and Alice Zube. At the age of 7 he suffered from chronic hearing loss and was only able to take part in normal conversations again much later using modern hearing aids. After graduating from the "Kronprinz-Wilhelm-Realgymnasium" in Gdansk, he studied philosophy and political science. Around 1929 he finished his studies in Berlin after eight semesters. In the same year he met the German writer John Henry Mackay - despite his Scottish name - who had become known in the 1890s as the rediscoverer of Max Stirner and since then as a propagandist of individual anarchism .

Zube founded the Mackay Society in 1931 to organize support for the writer who was financially in need as a result of the global economic crisis . However, the proud and sensitive Mackay did not accept this assistance and broke off his relationship with Zube.

The correspondence between Kurt Zube and John Henry Mackay from 1929 to 1933 is in the library of the Free . The Mackay Society was no longer able to help the writer substantially and expired in 1933, both because of Mackay's death and because of the transfer of power to the NSDAP in Germany.

Act

After completing his studies in 1929, K. Zube had already edited the journal Radikaler Geist - a cross-section of the literature of all directions at the time . In addition to his work as a writer and publisher, he also ran a mail order bookshop and in 1930 married his first wife, Hildegard Zube. They had two children together, their son Jörn (who later emigrated to Australia) and their daughter Karla. Jörn (John) Zube became known through a new concept for the inexpensive distribution of books and writings (by freedom thinkers) and as a representative of the idea of ​​"panarchy" according to de Puydt .

In 1931 Germany experienced a banking crisis of unprecedented proportions. In 1933, Kurt Zube's accounts were blocked, publishing works were confiscated and he was banned from working. The journal Radikaler Geist was a thorn in the side of the authorities, because on the one hand there were author portraits of André Gide , Gerhart Hauptmann , Kurt Tucholsky and Ernst Jünger , on the other hand, Zube had published an article with the title: " Heil Hitler " (in the sense of from "heal him"). The Gestapo also burned valuable manuscripts and Zube's private library. House searches and the threat of deportation to the Oranienburg concentration camp, as well as a two-day interrogation a year later, made life difficult for him. Financially, he and his wife were in a poor position, and under the pressure of the ever-growing dictatorship in Germany, both emigrated to Vienna on January 6, 1935. As a non-Austrian, Zube was banned from working and was required to report to the local police. Zubes expatriation from Germany was announced in the Reichsanzeiger in July 1935 . With that he became stateless; his German passport was confiscated. In the same year, Zube's marriage ended in divorce.

Despite the material poverty that his life as a freelance writer brought with it at that time, Kurt Zube continued on his way. As a participant in the Swiss WIR (economic ring) cooperative, who had dealt with the effects of the monetary monopoly due to his anarchist views before, was not very lucky. Although he invested "a lot of money" in the WIR cooperative, he did not receive a residence permit for Switzerland. The Wirtschaftsring-Genossenschaft was founded on October 16, 1934 as a " self-help organization by Werner Zimmermann, Paul Enz and 14 other people " (Dr. W. Wüthrich, Zurich). Since Zube had not received a residence permit in Switzerland and the WIR statutes stipulated that only Swiss members could become members, he was one of the first participants, but not a co-founder of the cooperative. Zube finally separated from the WIR-Genossenschaft (today: WIR Bank ) and began to look for new ways of self-help and founded, for example, the SAG, “Mutual Self-Help” and the ESAG, “Mutual Assurance”.

After Austria was annexed to the German Reich in March 1938, Zube moved to Berlin to live with his parents, where he “worked as an invoice clerk and commercial clerk”. In 1942 he married his second wife, whom he had met in Vienna. After the end of the war, he was unable to work as a publisher immediately because he was stateless and the Americans initially did not grant him a publishing license. He was later able to publish the magazine European Observer , but only for six months until the American concession law was replaced by the Austrian one. In 1946, Zube published the brochure The World Association of Stateless People in his “Weltweit Verlag” . However, Zubes's new start as a publisher was thwarted by the Austrian authorities, and Zube had to give up his residence in St. Konrad because he had been threatened with expulsion.

Zube returned to Germany, where his life as a stateless person was also difficult. A police registration that had already been accepted was revoked because he did not have an alien passport or a permit to move into the country. Stops on the way to gaining a foothold in Germany were Freiburg, Munich and Hildesheim. Several years of bureaucratic problems passed before he was able to work again as a publisher and mail order bookseller. In 1951 he finally got his German citizenship back. Zube settled in Munich, where he worked as a freelance editor for an advertising newspaper for Drei Eichen Verlag . He also succeeded in re-publishing a magazine in line with the earlier publication Radikaler Geist : Erleseeses , which appeared from 1956 to 1968. He published, among other things, in the magazine Zeitgeist .

In 1974, Kurt Zube succeeded in re-establishing the Mackay Society, primarily to make the long-out-of-print literature by Mackay and his environment available again. " It certainly contributed to the shaping of the inherited existence of individualistic anarchism " ( Bernd A. Laska ). Among other things, the brochure series Lernziel Anarchy and On the subject were published . As a trustee of the Mackay Society, Uwe Timm took over responsibility for all financial obligations of the publishing house from 1977 to 1984 and made sure that the new publications could be financed from the income. In addition, he was responsible for public relations and statements (discussion, correspondence, etc.).

Kurt Zube died on May 7, 1991 in Freiburg im Breisgau. His estate was transferred to the Free Library in the summer of 2005 and now forms Fund 5 of the library's archive area with 135 archival units.

Think

Kurt Zube was a representative of individualistic anarchism in the tradition of Josiah Warren , Max Stirner , Benjamin Tucker and John Henry Mackay . He himself rejected the designation of individualistic anarchist and replaced it with "critical-scientific anarchism". For Zube, anarchy and anarchism were the consequent further development of the democratic idea as “equal freedom for all”; Pluralism, maturity, tolerance and free development of the personality without any form of domination. Zube did not start from a utopian "free society", but from concrete, individual people. His point of view was that only when the single person, the individual, was free, would society be free too. "Anarchist is the one who voluntarily renounces trying to rule others" (KHZ Solneman, in: The Manifesto of Freedom and Peace ). For him, free society, anarchism, was not an abstract concept, but a free association of individuals who, through solidarity and awareness of their individual nature and characteristics, unite for practical purposes while rejecting all forms of rule.

Works (selection)

An almost unmanageable number of publications by Kurt Zubes is contained in the archive of the library of the Free and in an "Internet list" by Jörn (John) Zube. Only publications are listed here that show essential stages in the life of the author and anarchist.

author

• KHZ Solneman: The Manifesto of Freedom and Peace. The opposite pole to the communist manifesto , Verlag der Mackay-Gesellschaft, Freiburg / Breisgau 1977. ISBN 3-921388-12-0 ( abstract ) ( Excerpt: The Manifesto of Freedom and Peace ) (Received the “alternative peace prize” of the counter-book fair in 1977 Frankfurt / Main)
• Kurt Zube, An Anarchist Manifesto (1977)
• KHZ Solneman: The pioneer. John Henry Mackay , Verlag der Mackay-Gesellschaft, Freiburg / Breisgau 1979. ISBN 3-921388-32-5

editor

• Radical mind , a cross-section through literature of all directions. Radikaler Geist publishing house, Berlin 1930–1933
• The stone knocker. Call of the working people , together with Heinz Elm-Mann (d. I. Paul Heinzelmann ). Werk-Tat Druck u. Publishing house, Berlin 1932
• Exquisite. The magazine with the global horizon , Th. Mann KG publishing house, Giessen 1955–1968

further reading

• Wolfgang Eckhardt: Kurt Zube (1905–1991). List of estates. (PDF; 1.1 MB) With an introduction by Uwe Timm, Karin Kramer Verlag , Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-87956-311-X

• Uwe Timm: In memory of Kurt Zube , in: espero - circular of the Mackay Society, No. 0, March 1994, pp. 11-15

Web links

• Brief description in the database of German-speaking anarchism (DadA), the journal Radikaler Geist
• Brief description of the magazine Der Steinklopfer in DadA
• Brief description of the magazine Erlesees in the DadA
• Brief description of the brochure series "Lernziel Anarchy" in the DadA
• Publications of the publishing house of the Mackay Society . In the holdings of the German National Library.
• Literature by and about Kurt Zube in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ It is possible that when choosing his pseudonym , Zube was inspired by the title of the novel Solneman the Invisible by the well-known writer Alexander Moritz Frey in the 1920s .
2. ^ Kurt Zube estate directory (1905–1991) (PDF; 1.1 MB). Status: March 2006. Introduction by Uwe Timm.
3. ↑ The Cosmopolitan Union ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article by K. Zube on statelessness 
4. ↑ Kurt Zube (1905–1991) list of the estate , by Wolfgang Eckhardt; with an introduction by Uwe Timm
5. ↑ Michael Wünstel: About the WIR bank : barter, establishment of the WIR cooperative
6. ↑ Bernd A. Laska: Die Individualanarchisten und Max Stirner U. a. via the Mackay Society.